Meredith Greif

Assistant Professor

PhD, Pennsylvania State University

Meredith Greif is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research is at the intersection of race, space, and housing. She has shown how homelessness and housing insecurity result from, and perpetuate, racial and economic inequalities. Her work has highlighted the ways in which housing insecurity is self-perpetuating, leading to mental health problems, risky sexual behavior, and addiction that subsequently heighten vulnerability to future housing insecurity. She is currently studying supply-side sources of housing insecurity, including landlords’ business practices pertaining to evictions, harassment, property disrepair, and discrimination based on race and source of income. With funding from the 21st Century Cities Initiative she is exploring the viability of large-scale privatization of housing for formerly homeless individuals, and has also examined employment-based models of supportive and transitional housing for people who have been homeless. Her work also examines the under-explored methods by which the regulatory and institutional environment in cities influences housing and neighborhood patterns. Spanning cities including New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, and Nairobi, her work speaks to the significance of local context for patterns of housing insecurity and inequality. She received her PhD in Sociology from The Pennsylvania State University and her BS in Rural Sociology from Cornell University. Her research has been published in journals including City & Community, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Urban Studies, Health & Place, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Social Science Research.

My research focuses on homelessness, housing insecurity, homeownership, and neighborhood effects, both internationally and domestically. I currently study how landlords' business practices contribute to housing outcomes among lower-income and formerly homeless individuals, and explore models of stable, supportive housing for formerly homeless individuals. My research also addresses how neighborhood and housing outcomes vary across racial and ethnic groups, and how they perpetuate intergroup inequalities.